Controversial pick for envoy to Italy finally starts vetting process

Former Italian journalist and lawmaker Fiamma Nirenstein last week took the first hurdle on her way to become Israel’s new ambassador to Italy, more than half a year after she was publicly nominated for the post.

The Times of Israel has learned that the government requested that Nirenstein appear before a committee at Israel’s Civil Service Commission, thus formally beginning the process she needs to complete before she can head to Rome. No date for her appearance before the commission has been set yet.

Political appointees to ambassadorial postings have to appear before the committee, where they are quizzed about several issues, including possible conflicts of interests. Only after the committee gives a green light, and the candidate has received security clearance, is his or her candidacy voted on in the cabinet. (According to a report in the Israeli media, Nirenstein already received security clearance.)

Once the cabinet okays the appointment, the Israeli Embassy in the respective host country asks for a so-called agrément, a host country’s confirmation of another state’s envoy to its capital.

On Sunday, the cabinet approved three new Israeli ambassadors: to Egypt, Nigeria and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It remains unclear when Nirenstein’s nomination will be brought to a vote.

Usually, the process from an ambassador’s nomination to his or her cabinet approval takes no more than a few weeks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appointment for ambassador in Brazil, Dani Dayan, for instance, was announced on August 5, 2015 and was confirmed by the cabinet exactly one month later. (Brasilia subsequently refused to provide his agrément, due to his past as a leader of the settlement movement, leading Netanyahu to appoint him as Israel’s new consul-general in New York last week.)

Israel’s current ambassador to Italy, Naor Gilon, has been in Rome since 2012 and is concluding his term this summer. Under normal circumstances, his successor would have been ready to take up the post, since it can take several months before an agrément is received.

Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Foreign Ministry this week replied to a Times of Israel inquiry as to why it took more than seven months for the government to file a request for Nirenstein to appear before the Civil Service Commission committee allowing her appointment to move forward. Reached recently on the phone, Nirenstein refused to comment, merely stating that there are no problems with her appointments and that it is moving ahead.

Netanyahu had appointed Nirenstein, a former member of the Italian parliament, on August 10, 2015, just two years after she had moved to Jerusalem from Rome — where she had recently run, unsuccessfully, for the leadership of the Jewish community. According to diplomatic convention an ambassador cannot hold the citizenship of the country he or she is serving in; Netanyahu said Nirenstein would renounce her Italian passport after her appointment.

Nirenstein’s nomination has been controversial from day one, raising eyebrows among Israeli career diplomats and concerns in Italy’s Jewish community.

For one, Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that Nirenstein has not been living in Israel for a significant period of time. Furthermore, they point out that she just recently quit her job as an Italian politician and that her son works for Italy’s secret service, making her an awkward choice for ambassador to this country.

Her nomination was also criticized by some Italian Jews, who were concerned that a former Italian parliamentarian now returning to her native land as a representative of another state could spark dual loyalty charges. Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, for instance, said he feared “there may be problems… just read what’s already on the social networks about her dual citizenship.”

Another senior member of the city’s Jewish community deemed Nirenstein’s appointment “problematic,” according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. Sending her to Rome as Israel’s ambassador “could make people ask if Italy’s Jews are Israeli or Italian. It could even harm other Jews’ chances of being elected to the Italian parliament, or to senior government posts in the future,” he told the paper.

Netanyahu’s move could stir up anti-Jewish sentiment in Italy, another community member said. “Over the years, the Jew is always suspected of being a traitor to his country. Placing her in Italy, on the other side of the table, could harm Italian Jews’ identity,” he told Haaretz.

In March, a Foreign Ministry official criticized Nirenstein for promoting her new book at public events in Italy, accusing her of violating diplomatic protocol. “It is not acceptable for an ambassador to work in the country she will serve, before she has been confirmed,” the unnamed official told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Nirenstein was the Israel correspondent for newspapers La Stampa and Panorama between 1991 and 2006, according to her website. Before returning to Italy to become a politician, she had lived in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for years, acquaintances of hers told The Times of Israel. In the early 1990s, she also directed the Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Born in Florence, Nirenstein, the author of a dozen books and a regular blogger at The Times of Israel, was elected to the Italian parliament in 2008 as a member of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom party. She served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Her term ended in March 2013 — two months before she made aliyah and became an Israel citizen and less than three years before Netanyahu would tap her as Israeli ambassador to Italy.

“I’m convinced that Fiamma Nirenstein will bring with her to the position lots of diplomatic and political experience, and will succeed in deepening the relationship between Israel and Italy, our close friends, and act for diplomatic, economic, cultural and security cooperation,” Netanyahu declared at the time.